Why aren’t we talking about Ron Paul? See Opinion p. 5 Spartans sunk on Senior Night
— versus — ™
See Sports
77 years... and counting
p. 2
See Tech p. 3
Monday March 5, 2012 Volume 138, Issue 20
SPARTAN DAILY SpartanDaily.com
MySJSU rolls out major updates to server back end by Christian Gin Staff Writer
MySJSU, the university’s student online system for information, is undergoing a change for the first time since 2006. “We’re moving to the latest version possible,” said Carrie Medders, common management system director. “The current version has been around for some time, and it is required we give it a face-lift.” To some students, MySJSU has been unreliable. “It’s a system that works with an outdated system,” sophomore political science major Gabe Herrera said. “It needs
an upgrade because I dislike the user interface.” There are others who found it difficult and slow for a mobile device. “I don’t like using MySJSU unless I need to,” sophomore computer science major Nick Guerzon said. “It’s very laggy and slow, especially when I try using it on my smartphone.” Medders said this is a California State University (CSU) wide implementation of using the latest software edition of PeopleSoft. PeopleSoft is the software that is operated in MySJSU, and is used for people managing businesses and companies outside of SJSU.
“As of right now, ten of the 23 CSUs have switched over to the new system,” Medders said. “We chose to make these changes now because adding and dropping classes are not ongoing and registration for the summer is not until later.” The changes to MySJSU will not be apparent to the average student, according to Medders. “We want to make MySJSU as seamless as possible for students,” Medders said. “It is an upgrade even though it won’t look like there are many changes.” Some students don’t have a problem when finding what they’re looking for. “MySJSU is pretty good,” said Nimeet Gandhi, a software engineering gradu-
ate student. “It’s easy for me to find stuff like self-service. I also like how it never runs slow when processing.” The system will acquire PeopleSoft version 9, an upgrade from the previous version of PeopleSoft 8.9, according to Medders. Medders said the MySJSU homepage will look almost the same. The first major difference will be an extra tab on the top-left of the page to navigate and find all pages. “The tab will make it easier for students to find what they’re looking for,” Medders said. The other change that Medders talked about was that anyone can use their
SJSU One account and log in to MySJSU with it. Medders said the SJSU One account is an account for a student or faculty member to connect to the wireless internet. “Both accounts will be linked up,” Medders said. “It gives a reason for students to activate their SJSU One account.” The MySJSU front page, before logging into an account, also has the same template as the front page on SJSU’s main website, according to Medders. The last noticeable change is the Oracle logo will be placed in the top-left
SEE MySJSU PAGE 4
San Jose, SJSU to establish community-wide bike share by Megan Mills Staff Writer
A new bike sharing program may be coming to the Bay Area and SJSU, which will let students, faculty and community members temporarily rent bikes at their leisure. Bike sharing can be defined as public bicycles designed for short-term use, a network of automated, self-service bike stations and a membership-based program that allows users to check out and return the bikes to different stations, according to a VTA document. The project is coming through a grant from the VTA, Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Bay Area Quality Management District, said Eyedin Zonobi, manager of SJSU’s Transportation Solutions. The SJSU planning board has partially approved the bike sharing stations that would be installed at the perimeter of campus by the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library. The university hopes that in the long run this program would stop students from putting their bikes in the storage centers long-term, Zonobi said. Bike sharing would mean the students don’t need to buy a bike or bring their bikes to campus and they could use the bike share bikes, Zonobi said.
The whole installation and maintenance would be taken care of by VTA, Zonobi said. “The pilot program refers to the trial period in which we test the potential of bike sharing to work in locations near transit and downtown areas in the five Bay Area cities,” said Brandi Childress, media spokesperson for the Santa Clara VTA. “What we’re hoping for is that bike sharing can work in different types of communities as a complementary mode of public transportation as well as serve as a ‘last-mile solution’ for connecting to transit.” The pilot period will help determine how to evaluate system performance in each community, collect usage data and identify a sustainable model for expanding the program to other cities, Childress said.
Bike Share Specifics Bike sharing could provide a convenient option for making short trips to transit, work, home and social and recreation destinations. “Whenever I’d pass the Google campus or UC Davis and see all the bike share stations I always wondered if they would ever come to San Jose,” said senior communication major Christina Bergis. “It’s a great opportunity for the community to share with each other and go green by lowering our carbon footprint.”
SEE BIKE SHARE PAGE 4
Bike Share Survey
The performers in the Unicycles and Bowls act prepare for a synchronized toss and catch during the dress rehersal performance of Cirque Du Soleil’s “Totem” under
the Grand Chapiteau at Taylor Street Bridge on Friday. Cirque Du Soleil will be in San Jose until April 15. Photo by Raphael Kluzniok / Spartan Daily
SEE A&E PAGE 6
Student club seeks to nix smoking on campus by Nina Tabios Staff Writer
For more than 12 years students have been fighting for a smoke-free campus, according to Laurie Morgan, assistant director of Campus Wellness. “There was a lot of momentum with students in the Masters in Public Health (MPH) group,” Morgan said. “But what happens is that students graduate and the momentum dies down.” However, Morgan said that the momentum for a smoke-free campus has gained some energy within the last few years. The Campuses Organized and United for Good Health (COUGH) student
coalition, which was previously associated with and funded by the Santa Clara County Tobacco Free Coalition, is now recognized as an on-campus club and receives funding from Associated Students, according to Isra Ahmad, club president and junior health science major. The club works with the Wellness Center to hold drug and tobacco workshops and even cigarette butt litter cleanups within the last year, Morgan said. “I have over 6,000 butts sitting in my garage right now,” Ahmad said. “We were thinking of taking the butts and doing
Originally, SJSU wanted to see if this was something people would be interested in and sent out an email with a survey to all students and employees. The survey asked students and employees transportation questions, such as if they have access to a bicycle or would they support the implementation of a bike share program around SJSU campus. The student survey ended Thursday, while the employee survey is still being conducted. According to the Zonobi, 1,937 students and 555 faculty have completed the questionnaire so far. “The support is overwhelming…the support is about 80 percent,” Zonobi said.
something artsy with it to portray it to campus.” Last November, COUGH directed an on-campus survey for students, faculty and staff to reflect on how they felt about smoking on campus. The survey was distributed from Oct. 1 to Nov. 5 and asked 2,312 participants 12 campus-smoking-related questions like how often are they exposed to second-hand smoke, how much it bothers them and their opinion of the current smoke policy. “We started to realize that a lot of people don’t know the smoking policy on
Spartan Daily Serving San José State University since 1934 Volume 138 / Issue 20
t Twitter: @spartandaily
75˚
f facebook.com/spartandaily 45˚
View exclusive stories and multimedia at
spartandaily.com campus and how badly people are violating it,” Ahmad said. The survey showed that about half of the participants thought that the policy is not effective. According to Morgan, the current smoking policy at SJSU is that people are prohibited from smoking within 25 feet from all doors, windows and ground level intake structures, however she notes that cigarette butt collectors around campus are often placed about five-to-ten feet away from the doors.
SEE SMOKING PAGE 4